I think people are just desperately dreaming up ways to avoid having to face the prospect of another season of Smalling/Jones/Rojo/Bailly.
Centre Back... Who do we go for?
- Thread starter Macern
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Yeah or even Bonucci who might fancy a crack at playing in the premier league. Does worry me a lot we aren't looking at the likes of Dias,Milenkovic,Romagnoli.
My top choice would definitely be Koulibaly but just think Utd won't pay £90m for a 28 year old even though he is absolutely top drawer.
A fit and refined Bailly would be amazing 
Tuanzebe promotion and Jones/Rojo out.
A new signing in too.
Bailly, Lindelof, Tuanzebe, New guy and Smalling
Would be a good start for us.
Tuanzebe promotion and Jones/Rojo out.
A new signing in too.
Bailly, Lindelof, Tuanzebe, New guy and Smalling
Would be a good start for us.
And Rojo. Neither can stay fit and aren't great when they are. I'm not convinced Bailly will ever turn into the player we all hoped he would though.A fit and refined Bailly would be amazing
Tuanzebe promotion and Jones out.
Hopefully Joachim Andersen
Reasonable price and looks a quality defender
Reasonable price and looks a quality defender
We need something rock solid and reliable, with a reasonable level of confidence on the ball to play forward passes, preferably a leader as we are lacking that in the team in general. Bailly and Jones are crocks. Smalling by the end of last season looked like a non league defender, not covering runs, caught facing his goal on numerous occasions and his tackling and heading attempts were clumsy constantly using arms to awkwardly foul opponents, he does win a lot of headers but on most occasions even under not much pressure he just punts the ball into no mans land, that is lower level shit, he should have the ability to direct the ball to one of his players so we can start another attack. It is well documented he is crap with the ball at his feet so we cannot start attacks when he has the ball, you have to wait until he passes it to somebody else and you lose out on opportunities to use our quick attackers in good positions.
I like the look of Ruben Dias, young with plenty of potential
People hoped it would be the case for Dalot, people hope it to be the case for Daniel James. Nothing wrong with believing one of our best youth players could come good for us, he's not even a teenager either. The lad isn't that far off 22.
I don't find it that dumb, he's got plenty of talent on the ball, got rave reviews playing for Villa. He deserves a chance just as much as our other shite CBs (if not more so). I'd back Ole if he decided to dump one of our current CBs to make room for Tuanzebe. I do agree those saying he's the best CB at the club are taking it a step too far though.
I'd agree with this.A fit and refined Bailly would be amazing
Tuanzebe promotion and Jones/Rojo out.
A new signing in too.
Bailly, Lindelof, Tuanzebe, New guy and Smalling
Would be a good start for us.
What about Adam Webster at Bristol? Tall, good in the air and a good passer. 24 years old. Aston villa are supposedly after him for 12m. Could easily be a description of Maguire not too long since.
Alessio Romagnoli.
Leader, left-footed LCB, decent in the air, ball-playing.
Milan kicked out of Europa League because of FFP. New manager incoming. It's now or never.
Leader, left-footed LCB, decent in the air, ball-playing.
Milan kicked out of Europa League because of FFP. New manager incoming. It's now or never.
Totally agree with this.
Never watched him but you had me at leader. If we could get a guy in of this profile who we were reasonably confident in and get rid of Rojo and Bailly then it would be a great summer.
Tuanzebe and Linderof are better footballers than Maguire, but Maguire is better in the air. Maguire is a mid-table PL player. "Good in the air with experience of PL" doesn't make him worth £80 because he's not a player one can win the PL or ECL with.
I think we have to accept the fact that Utd aren't interested in the likes of Dias despite the decent price. Could well be some truth in Napoli wanting around £120m for Koulibaly so it looks to me like Maguire or no one.
Posts like these make me wonder, do people really think they have the better knowledge than scouts, coaches and other professionals on the highest level in the world? Doesn't even cross one's mind there might be more to it? Do you genuinely think Tuanzebe is currently a better player than Maguire?
He may not be better yet but has more potential. I would take Alderwerld on a free with a good salary and let Axel develop with us. If not Nathan Ake who is left footed and can also cover for Shaw. The only reason he is not in the Dutch team is because of van Dijk and de Ligt
Richard Keogh
Alderweireld is not on a free.
Anyone seen much of this Dan-Axel Zagadou at Dortmund?
All the characteristics to be an absolute monster of a CB
All the characteristics to be an absolute monster of a CB
Sorry I meant buyout clause
I honestly have no idea what our scouts do. Seriously, could they not think more out the box than Maguire?
We have a small army of scouts, but when was the last time they unearthed a gem such as a Kante or Mahrez?
Even Dele Alli who had a blinder against us for MK Don's..
Difficult to know. They may well have pointed out many but been ignored by the Management. Given our transfer policy has been utter shit for years that would make me think its less of a scouting problem and more of a Management issue. We may well have both though, useless scouts and useless Management. If you look through all of our previous transfers since Sir Alex i'd say the following are scout signings (either due to being young in age or from a foreign league outside of the Top5):
Daniel James
Fred
Diogo Dalot
Victor Lindelöf
Eric Bailly - Very inexperienced despite playing in La Liga
Memphis Depay
Marcos Rojo
Daley Blind
Vanja Milinković-Savić
When you look through that list it isn't exactly inspiring to be fair.
Would love to see us sign Jose Maria Gimenez but he is on a contract to 2023 and his release clause is supposedly 120million euros.
If De Ligt is not coming and Leicester are holding out for 90million pounds for Maguire, I'd much rather like to see us go for JMG or Koulibaly even though they are expensive. Guess Diop is next in line though.
If De Ligt is not coming and Leicester are holding out for 90million pounds for Maguire, I'd much rather like to see us go for JMG or Koulibaly even though they are expensive. Guess Diop is next in line though.
I really think we will have one more tilt at Maguire. Best English CB and Ole wants to get his signings in before the plane leaves for Australia on Sunday. Personally not sure if that’s the right move, but we’ve got little time to work on plan B, C, D, or E.
Is anyone a regular watcher of Leipzig? Thoughts on Konaté and Upamecano? Who’s better? Seen bits and bobs of both, wasn’t too aware of Konaté but was just watching some highlights and he looks like a decent player. Highlights but seemed to play some defence splitting passes, strong, quick, decent with the ball and would drive forward.
Statman Dave mentions Konate as the better option.
Only two players from that list are scout signings i'd say. The two being James and Savic. Some would even say James is a Giggs recommendation.
The German fans i've spoken to, consider Konate to be the bigger talent.
Intresting, just seen as well something called soccer x that does the values of players has him in the top 20 most valuable players under 21. Mbappe, Sancho, DeLigt and Havertz top 4 and he is in 16th. They have him valued at 35mil but I’d say there is a 20mil swing given Militao is valued at 43mil and I think he went for 63 and others on the list are always touted at fees about 20 mil more than what they are saying.
So 55 mil roughly say for Ibrahim Konaté, his highlight reel actually looks pretty decent so he looks like he’d be worthwhile throwing on the consideration pile.
@red thru&thru
Someone! Anyone! God please!
I'd be very happy with Konate as a potential new CB. He will develop into a very powerful and imposing CB IMO.
You are right, we have an excellent global scouting system and you can be certain they are aware of these players but what people need to understand is ultimately the manager decides how he want to tap into that plethora of information, what style of player he wants, and in fairness to the owners and Woodward the managers have been backed, apart from Mourinho in the last season where he was acting the bollox and after being indulged aging players in Matic and Sanchez he wanted alderweireld even though they already bought him 2 CBs. The manager is the key, the scouting information is there no doubt.
We have to sell before we buy, we currently have 6 centre backs adding another if we can't off load any of them seems reckless.
We can sell abroad after our window closes. Top priority has to be get one in before 5pm August 8th - preferably sooner.
We're being linked to Badiashile from Monaco again by L'Equipe in France. He's only 18 and would be one for the future. My preference would be to go with Badiashile & Ibrahima Konate instead of blowing £75m on Maguire.
Konate is still only 20 but from what i've seen and read, he would be perfect as the imposing CB we're looking for. Don't know too much about Badiashile but I know we've tracked him for a number of years now and the club must rate him very highly if we're giving the North London clubs a free run at Saliba from St Ettiene to target the Monaco teen. Who they value at €35m according to L'Equipe.
Konate is still only 20 but from what i've seen and read, he would be perfect as the imposing CB we're looking for. Don't know too much about Badiashile but I know we've tracked him for a number of years now and the club must rate him very highly if we're giving the North London clubs a free run at Saliba from St Ettiene to target the Monaco teen. Who they value at €35m according to L'Equipe.
Personally I think centre back is the least of our worries .I would be happy if we stick with what we have until a real class defender becomes available and concentrate on acquiring two decent central midfield players ,then our centre backs would have less work to do,and if not over worked they might be less likely to make mistakes.Just my opinion.
Well unlikely we can sell abroad considering the wages of our centre backs compared to how they are valued.
Realistically their arn't even rumours of anyone been interested in our center backs.
What the point all the good cb have gone. plus our spending for this season is over. We not going to buy anyone else unless we sell someone.